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Topic Review (Newest First)

09-02-2010 08:09 PM

cobalt327

The kicker to degreeing a cam is that to not cause your own "tolerance stack" (read- error), a large diameter degree wheel is needed- the bigger the better. And the bigger, the more $$$.

But even a little 6" degree wheel will at least help you to see if the parts were machined correctly. On a budget, but know how to print something out and use a pair of shears?

Do it yourself DEGREE WHEEL. I see no reason you couldn't use a program like Hypersnap, etc. to enlarge this to whatever size you wanted.

I'm going to do just that and put it into my photo gallery if it works.

So im completely confused by all this and it appears i have none of the tools required to do it. Am i really going to be causing problems by just installing it by using the marks on the timing gears?

Engine building is one endeavor that will truely give you a great appreciation for the old saying "Ignorance is bliss". Many engines have been built with no thought given to degreeing a cam. The person doing this has a good chance of being completely satisfied with the outcome of their project whether they degree their cam or not.
There are so many individual parts individual parts involved in an engine assembly. All of these parts are cast or machined by so many different sources that all will be assembled into one engine. Any time a part is made there are specs with a tolerance range that they fall into. This leads to a condition called tolerance stacking. All of these tolerances can stack up or cancel each other out.
The purpose of all these engine assembly techniques, like degreeing a cam, are performed to help eliminate these tolerances & assure that all of the parts you have spent your hard earned money on are working the best they can, in your particular project.
There are some good books out there. One of the first ones I would suggest is the "The step by step guide to engine blue printing". give it a read & see if it helps with this or future engine projects.

So im completely confused by all this and it appears i have none of the tools required to do it. Am i really going to be causing problems by just installing it by using the marks on the timing gears?

The chances that you will run into a problem by not degreeing the cam are far greater today that they were maybe ten years ago, IMO. The problem that I have been running into is poor quality control on the timing gears. They can be out by +/- ten degrees - which is a problem that I had on the last engine that I built. The cam and timing chain/gears were from Comp Cams (I'm definitely not slamming Comp Cams but just pointing out that this was not a no name brand cheapo deal). Take the time to either have someone degree the cam for you or have someone help you do it but make sure it gets done. If you want I can tell you the experience that I just had and then you'd really understand but I don't want to write a book at this time.

EDIT: I don't know how to attach different threads on here but search for this thread and it will explain why you should degree in your camshaft:
"degreeing cam, worth it??"